As an up-and-coming designer, completing a design project is a huge accomplishment, but you shouldn’t stop there. Having the result of all that hard work professionally photographed will help you get your project noticed, land press coverage, create a showstopper of a website, and ultimately send tons of new clients your way. For this month’s Webinar: The Importance of Photography For Your Brand, Chairish’s Head of Media Partnerships, Mugs Buckley, is joined by Bay Area-based interiors photographer Michelle Drewes to help break down why having your projects professionally shot matters. The team talks about what you need to know (and can expect to spend), how to maximize those pics to grow your business, and much more. Get a sneak peek at some of the tips below, and watch the full webinar HERE!
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Why Shoot?
It’s no secret that you’ll incur some upfront cost if you hire a professional photographer to shoot your project, but you’re almost guaranteed a great return on that investment. Not only will you be able to use the images on your own marketing channels, such as your website and Instagram account, you can use them to actively market yourself. With beautiful images, you can pitch the project out to story-hungry digital media outlets, offer to do a guest post for brands or bloggers using the imagery, and even bank them for future use in projects such as speaking engagements or a book. San Francisco designer Jonathan Rachman had the room he designed for the SF Decorator Showcase (pictured above) shot by his own photographer, and the pictures were used for his website, social channels, as well as things like a collection and content collaboration with Chairish.
What the Pros Know
A professional photographer knows how to make your project look its best, from lighting tricks of the trade, to picking the perfect angles to shoot from. “You want it to feel natural,” says Michelle. “When hiring a professional photographer, especially if they specialize in interiors, they’ll really have honed their skills for getting the right lighting for your image that shows off the details.” The before and after above illustrates what a big difference professional lighting can make. Photographers also understand how to capture a single room from multiple vantage points, giving you the horizontal images that are best for website portfolios, and vertical images that are perfect for Instagram. Depending on their experience, most photographers charge a day-rate that can range between $1,000-$3,000, but what you’ll get is well worth the spend.
Style It Up
Having a stylist to arrange flowers, declutter and clean surfaces, fluff pillows, and artfully fill an empty surface with eye-catching elements (like in the image above from our feature on the home of designer Benjamin Dhong) is a must. Whether you hire a professional stylist or decide to tackle that aspect of the shoot yourself is up to you. “You’re designing and styling for the photographic outcome that you want,” says Mugs, which are images of a space that looks beautiful, but also full of life. For a photoshoot of a freshly completed kitchen redo, Michelle notes that the designer brought in tons of props to style the empty countertops and shelves, resulting in images of a kitchen that felt lovely and lived in.
Plan Ahead
Our experts agree that it’s best to get all the details squared away with the photographer well in advance of any photoshoot. This includes pricing and deliverables, a date, start and end time for the shoot, reviewing scouting shots and a shot list (ideally prioritized in order of importance), as well as usage rights and licensing and copyright agreements. It’s best to have a signed contract with your photographer that includes most of the aforementioned details in advance of the shoot date.
Get Yourself Organized
Once you have your pics, be sure to create an organized filing system. For each image file, our team recommends including the name of your firm, name of the project, the date, and the name of the photographer. And above all, make sure your final image files are high resolution, which is typically over 1MB. Low resolution images are not only unusable for most brands and media outlets, but blurry pics won’t cast your amazing design work in the best light.
For more about the importance of photography to your brand, including which designers have #goals portfolio images and how they are using them across social channels, view the full webinar HERE!
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Lead Photo: Design by Cortney Bishop, Photo by Katie Charlotte
